Steve Heminger, head of the Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission, is reportedly at or near the top of the list of finalists to be transportation secretary in the Barack Obama administration. Heminger, whose name has been in circulation for a few weeks on unofficial lists of Cabinet contenders, now is reportedly “in the rail position for the job,” according to a column in Friday’s Washington Post.

A spokesman for the MTC said Heminger is refusing to talk about the speculation and would not confirm the Post’s report that he has met with Obama.

At the helm of the MTC, Heminger has been a major proponent of interlinking mass transit systems and also backs the controversial idea of congestion pricing, meaning charging motorists to drive crowded routes at peak times, or charging solo drivers for access to carpool lanes. He also has helped secure funds for bringing BART to San Jose.

The Oakland-based MTC is responsible for coordinating transportation policy and funding throughout the nine-county Bay Area. Heminger joined the MTC in 1993 and became executive director in 2001. Before that, he spent three years as vice president for transportation issues at the industry-backed Bay Area Council.

Heminger has powerful supporters in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Pelosi named him to a national panel charged with studying ways to fix the nation’s crumbling surface transportation systems. Earlier this year, the group suggested it would take an increase of up to 40 cents a gallon in the gas tax over five years to upgrade the nation’s transit systems.

In transportation planning, “Steve has led the Bay Area into the 21st century, and sometimes it’s a tough sell when everyone wants it for free,” said Mike Evanhoe, former head of the California Transportation Commission and former chief of the Valley Transportation Authority.

The Transportation Department is expected to take on a large role implementing part of Obama’s economic stimulus program, which includes massive spending to create jobs by upgrading the nation’s key transportation systems.

Carl Guardino, president and CEO of Silicon Valley Leadership Group, called Heminger an innovator who knows Washington well. Asked if a Bay Area resident in the job would help in the long effort to bring BART to San Jose, Guardino said, “Steve is not a parochial thinker.” But, he added, it “can only help the Bay Area” that he “understands the needs of urban transit systems and an urban economy.”

Former San Jose Congressman Norman Mineta served as transportation secretary for more than five years in the Bush administration. So if Heminger were tapped, a Bay Area person would have held the nation’s top transportation job for all but 21/2 years since 2001.

Others mentioned for the job include Jane Garvey, who served as Federal Aviation Administration administrator, the Transportation Department’s largest agency, at the time of the Sept. 11 attacks, and who also has been an acting administrator of the Federal Highway Administration. Former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk also has been mentioned, as well as Deputy Transportation Secretary Mortimer Downey.

With indications that Obama wants to make most if not all of his key Cabinet appointments before Christmas, several Californians remain possible contenders, according to media reports. Earlier this week, it was widely reported that Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory director Steven Chu is Obama’s pick for energy secretary. A formal announcement is expected next week.